Your Dog is Smarter Than you Think: Communicating With your Dog

Maggie: My Austrian Black and Tan Hound, and the Inspiration for this Hub

Clearly she's about to get a treat.

Why Dogs Love Us

Dogs have long been hailed as man's best friend, and to any owner of a pleasant pooch, this saying rings true. However, most friendships don't spontaneously explode into a fully trusting and mutually beneficial relationships and strong bonds usually take years to develop. Contrastingly, when a puppy is confronted with a human, they almost immediately start yipping, licking, and loving. In this sense, it might be better to call dogs "Man's best genetically suited friend". Because of the co-evolution of dogs and humans, dogs are genetically tuned to be masters at understanding our commands and from a young age want to communicate with us way more than any other animal species. We'll go through three different experiments done by researchers and examine how dogs read our eyes, understand our points, and, from a young age, know that we're a source of help and a friend in a time of need.

Before We Look at Experiments, a Fun Trait That You and Your Dog Share

Humans and dogs have similar eyes in that we both have white sclera (the whites of the eye). It has been proposed that animals with a strong co-dependency within species have white sclera, because it makes very easy to tell where your fellow species members are looking. While humans are unique in being able show a wide variety of emotions through our eyes, other animals (specifically dogs) find that knowing where their fellow pack members are looking is beneficial to social life. Don't believe me? Check out the photo below and notice the similarities between our eyes and a dog's eye. Now the question, can dogs actually receive information from our eyes? The answer is yes, and they do it better than the long hailed geniuses of the animal kingdom, chimpanzees.

White Sclera vs. Brown Sclera

The eyes on the top belong to a dog and a human, whereas the ones on the bottom are the eyes of a chimpanzee and a raccoon. Notice how the whites are very visible on the top set of eyes, and practically non-existent in the bottom set. | Source

Experiment #1: Can Dogs Read our Eyes?

Now, when there's no possibility of them getting a treat, dogs don't show any particular desire to follow where you're looking. When they've been taught that when they guess correctly, they get a treat, the game changes completely. Here's the breakdown of the experiment done by Krisztina Soproni and a team of researchers (I'll avoid listing every detail in method):

Two sound- and scent-proofed bowls were used, one of which contained a tasty treat for the dog. The researchers trained the dog to understand that if it picked the correct container, it would get the treat as a reward, thus giving the dog an incentive to pick correctly. Finally, there were three different ways that the researchers would try to cue the dog towards the correct container.

#1 "At Target" - The researcher both turned her head towards the bowl, and focused her gaze on the bowl.

#2 "Above Target" - The researcher turned her head towards the bowl, but looked above and beyond the bowl (toward the ceiling, basically).

#3 "Eyes Only" - The researcher only shifted her gaze towards the bowl, while her head remained straight.

There were 12 trials in total.

Results of Experiment #1: Can Dogs Read our Eyes?

The results for the test are as follows (there is also a table below titled "Table 1" if you want numbers). ***A quick note before you look at the tables and the results, averages near 50% (45-55) are called "At Chance", which means guessing. Averages below 45% or so are considered "Below Chance", and those above 55% are called "Above Chance", both showing that there's less guessing involved.:

At Target: The At Target trials had everyone involved performing at more or less the same level, which is impressive for the dogs considering they were going up against humans and chimpanzees.

Above Target: The chimpanzees performed the best at the Above Target trials, with babies and dogs doing quite poorly. However this is actually a good thing for the dogs and the babies, and a bad thing for the chimps. Why? Because chimpanzees were simply looking at the direction that the researcher's head was pointing, and were paying no attention to the eyes. For dogs and babies, when the researcher had her eyes up and above the bowl containing food, the dogs and babies saw it as a sign of indifference or inattentiveness. The dogs see the eyes not focused, and they think "Hey, this human doesn't give a care about what's going on here, so I'm going to go about my doggy ways". Pretty interesting to discover that when you take out the use of your eyes, your dog finds it much harder to understand what you're trying to communicate, or simply thinks you're ignoring it.

Eyes Only: For the Eyes Only trials, dogs performed the worst out of the three, with the babies and chimps performing at the "At Chance" level, which means they were more or less just guessing. You're thinking "If dogs are so good at reading our eyes, why'd they do the worst?". The reason might surprise you!

Why This Test Shows Dogs Are Special: The Explanation of the Eyes Only Results

So why did dogs do so poorly at the Eyes Only trials relative to the other participants? The reason is actually very interesting, but see if you can figure it out on your own by looking at the second table.

Table 1: Average Percentage of Correct Guesses for Chimps, Babies, and Dogs

At Target

Above Target

Eyes Only

Chimps

Approx. 75%

Approx. 65%

Approx. 55%

Babies

Approx. 75%

Approx. 48%

Approx. 50%

Dogs

Approx.. 75%

Approx. 52%

Approx. 49%

This is the mean percentage of correct guesses for each subject over all trials. Surprisingly dogs didn't do well in the 'Eyes Only' trials, but there's a very interesting reason why which will be explained below.
Data Taken from Povinelli et al. (

Table 2: Average Percentage of Correct Guesses by Dogs Only Based on Test and Divided by Trials

Trials 1 through 3

Trials 4 through 8

At Target

Approx. 70% Correct

Approx. 83% Correct

Above Target

Approx. 50% Correct

Approx. 55% Correct

Eyes Only

Approx. 31% Correct

Approx. 60% Correct

This table shows the average amount of correct guesses for all dogs over each trial. Pay special attention to the large increase in amount of correct guesses in the 'Eyes Only' trials over time.
Data taken from Soproni et al. (2001).

The Answer and More

Figure it out? The initial performance of the dogs in the first three trials of the experiment were so wretched that it could only mean one thing. That the dogs were choosing the wrong container on purpose (probably because the dogs thought the researcher was marking her territory by looking at 'her' cup). However, in the next four trials, you can see that the dogs started performing way above chance because they figured out that the container being looked at meant "treat for them". And this, folks, is why dogs did so poorly at the 'Eyes Only' tests. It's because they purposefully went for the wrong containers for the first few trials, and then very accurately guessed the right containers later in the testing. The figure above is an average, and take this as a lesson for why tables and graphs can't always be trusted.

So what does this all mean? It seems to show that when it comes to only using eyes, dogs are indeed smarter than chimps and babies at understanding gaze as significant in relaying information. They were just the victim of the averaging of results, and whereas babies and chimps were just guessing (staying near 50% is considered "At Chance", and shows guessing), dogs, in reality, immediately picked up that the eyes were being used to signal.1

Experiment #2: Can Dogs Understand Pointing?

In a study conducted in 2009 by Nicole Dorey, Monique Udell and Clive Wynne at the University of Florida, the ability of dogs to understand pointing cues (humans pointing in a certain manner at a cup hiding food) was researched.

The basic idea of how they did the test is shown in the picture (below revel in my amazing MS Paint skills) and also the video. One note though, the experiment done in the video is not nearly as accurate as the one I've explained (they don't control for smell in the video), and it also talks about dogs being "born with" the skill to understand points. Both of these make it a little shaky, but still a very good visual example of what's being explained (it also goes into the Eyes Only experiment discussed above).

Basic Sketch of Pointing Experiment

Example of the Pointing Test

The Method

Now the idea for this test is in no way unique (hence the video), and it has been done numerous times before. Using this to their advantage, the researchers made a point to not repeat mistakes that previous researchers made. Here’s the basic method of this experiment, to go along with the diagram above:

The researcher sat 0.5 m away from the middle of the two cups.

The researcher baited both cups hidden from the puppy, and then removed the bait from one of the cups. This was to make sure the puppy wouldn’t go to a cup because of the noise it heard from one side during baiting. To neutralize the smell, the researchers used two plastic cups (think red party cups) and stacked them on top of each other. Then, they put a piece of reward in between the two cups to make both cups smell equally of food. Think of a PB&J sandwich with the smell nullifying piece of food being the PB&J, and the two cups being the bread.

The researcher called the puppy to get its attention, and then, with hands starting from a neutral position, reached out her arm to point at a cup (her finger stopped 10cm from the cup) for approximately 1 second, and then went back to the neutral starting position.

Once the researcher had went back to a neutral position, the puppy was released. After 3 seconds if the puppy had come within 10 centimeters of the correct cup, it was considered a correct guess.

That’s it for method. They made sure to not leave the arm outstretched while the puppy chose a cup, because a previous test had found that puppies as young as 6 weeks of age were guessing ‘correctly’ using this type of visual cue. However, it turns out the puppies were simply coming to the outstretched hand of the researcher. So what were the results?

The Results of The Pointing Test

Back to the blip about puppies supposedly being able to listen to human cues as young as six weeks old, this led researchers to think that dogs could ‘communicate’ with humans regardless of their ontogeny (their upbringing and environment). The results from this test, however, seem to prove otherwise. The puppies chosen to do the tests were aged from 9 weeks to 24 weeks, and here’s how they performed.

The Number of Correct Guesses by Puppies Grouped by Age

Average Number of Correct Guesses

Group 1:Puppies 9 to 12 Weeks Old

Average 48% Guessed Correctly

Group 2: Puppies 13 to 16 Weeks Old

Average 51.6% Guessed Correctly

Group 3: Puppies 17 to 20 Weeks Old

Average 62.5% Guessed Correctly

Group 4: Puppies 21 to 24 Weeks Old

Average 74.4% Guessed Correctly

Notice how at 21 and more weeks of age, the puppies performed way above chance.
Data taken from Dorey et al. (2009).

Summary of Experiment #2: The Pointing Test

So what does this show? That puppies do need some time to develop and grow, and perhaps experience humans, but eventually, they become quite adept at deciphering our commands from the very young age of 5 to 6 months, but according to the results, they aren't necessarily born with the skill that makes them able to decipher human pointing cues (like the video said). That’s pretty impressive, and even our own offspring (babies) probably couldn’t manage to decipher pointing without it being used in their daily lives. So even though dogs may not be genetically disposed to being able to heed our every command from birth, they do have some pretty impressive brains that allow them to bond with us. Here’s a study that compares dogs and their close genetic relatives, wolves.2

The Wolf vs. Dog Debate: Who's Smarter?

Over my short lifetime, I’ve heard of people owning wolves and had to deal with the person telling the story of a friend of a friend talking about how cool it was and how it was just like a dog. This next test, however, seems to prove otherwise.

Experiment #3a: Dogs vs. Wolves in Human Compatibility

At the university of Eotvos Lorand located in Hungary (the biggest university in the country), researchers conducted an experiment comparing the personability of dogs and wolves when it comes to socializing with humans, and also overall dog intelligence.

For the most part, dogs have been considered dumber than their more feral counterparts, with the common conception being domestication equaling an irreplaceable loss of brain cells. Since the dog no longer has to think about and struggle for sustenance and shelter, the brain and body grow dull right? Wrong! Let’s refer to a study done in the 80’s. Scientists observed wild wolves as best they could attempting to perform relatively difficult tasks. What was discovered was, a wolf, after seeing a human unlock a gate once, could then imitate the action and unlock it itself. Dogs, on the other hand, after watching the human unlock the gate numerous times, sat there with a blank stare and bacon on the brain. Or so they thought… Thinking that dogs were actually smarter than given credit for, the head researcher at Eotvos Lorand figured that dogs were perfectly capable of unlocking a gate, but simply were waiting for the command to do so. He tested this not by pitting a dog against a locked gate, but seeing how successfully dogs accomplished tasks without their owner’s help, and then with it.

Method

28 dogs were selected with varying degrees of closeness to the owner, with some spending the majority of their time outdoors and not in close contact with humans, and vice versa. Food was placed on the opposite side of a fence, with a clearly visible and biteable handle sticking out from underneath the fence. The idea was that the dog would bite the handle, and then drag the plate of food to their side.

Results

When the dogs were simply pitted against the fence and plate of food on the other side, those dogs that spent more time outdoors and had a lesser relationship with their owner fared much better than those with close relationships to their owners. This alone would make one think that domestication does indeed make dogs stupider, as the dogs that had more independence and spent more time in the wild performed better. However, when the owners were then allowed to give verbal permission during the task, the gap between the two groups vanished.

Experiment 3b: The Real Test of Dog Compatibility

Curious to further test dogs’ unique compatibility with humans versus their genetic neighbors, the wolf, the same university had students raise both wolf cubs and dog pups. The students hand fed, played with, cooed at, and loved as best as they could their respective animal buddies. Three weeks later, to test both the wolves’ and dogs’ relationships to their owners, they placed both in a room with their respective student owners, and this is where the differences started to show. The wolves sat motionless, while the puppies tried their best to get attention from the student they were paired with, nipping at their hands, barking at high pitches, and walking over to them. The next phase of the experiment is the more interesting one though.

Method for Phase 2 of Experiment #3b

At three months of age, in order to test if dogs have a specific genetic disposition towards wanting to bond and interact with humans, the university conducted the following test:

Similar to the fence problem above, a piece of meat was attached to a rope, with the meat being unattainable unless the dog yanked on the rope and dragged it towards her.

The dog and wolf pups along with their owners were placed on the side of the fence with only the rope.

Both were then allowed to figure out for themselves how to solve the problem of attaining the meat.

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, when left alone, both animals were able to drag on the rope to get the meat. This is no surprise, nor is it particularly interesting, which leads me to the next part.

The Truly Interesting Phase of this Experiment

With everything exactly the same as the experiment above, the meat was now anchored to the ground on the other side of the fence, and this is where the true differences showed. When the puppy pulled on the meat and realized that it wasn’t coming any closer, it went over it its owner and, in its own unique way, asked for some sort of assistance. The wolves, on the other hand, proceeded to pull on the rope until they got tired, practically ignoring their owners and focusing only on the meat.

What does this show? That even though both animals were raised pretty much exactly the same from birth, one had a clear desire to communicate with humans, and seemed to realize that humans could help solve problems, or give the hints or commands on how to attain treats. That animal, of course, is our genetically compatible buddy, the dog.3

Sum Up

After going over all this scientific research and mumbo
jumbo (save for the 3rd part), I’m sure you just have strengthened
your initial belief that your dog is special.
Dogs may not be able to debate politics or give you stock tips, but
they’re pretty smart when it comes to communicating with us and paying
attention to us. With the way they can
read our eyes and body movements, it might be scary to actually play a game of
poker against a dog. Further, not every
animal is capable of doing what a dog can do, even one that’s supposedly the
ancestor and therefore close genetic relative.
Dogs have something special that allows them to be good companions for
us, and hopefully after reading this you’ve attained a slightly more scientific
and empirically backed argument as to why you’re a “dog person”. Thanks for reading!

Comments

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GillE 2 years ago

From field research I've read, it seems that wolves are masters of giving directions & instructions in silence, as soldiers have to re ambush tactics, to organise pack members during hunts. They have long noses, so head-pointing works for them, whereas eyes wouldn't show up at distance or dark conditions.

I find it very worrying that scientists still test intelligence of animals against human abilities, when animals are far superior to humans in the intelligence/abilities required for their particular niche in life, & vice versa. If dogs tested human intelligence by assessing human's abilities to detect scent & pinpoint prey or any desired item, all terrain & in darkness, & to observe & act on incredibly faint observations of behaviour, even at a distance, they would assume humans were unbelievably thick.

Some dogs' white sclera shows, eg pugs, cavaliers, because they've been bred to have deformed faces/ too large eyes, so the eyeballs bulge out of the sockets & show more white than is normal. However my current collie pup is unusual in having some sclera showing all the time, just like a human, & also appaloosa horses. He also has grey eyes, so it is like having a person looking at you, rather than a dog! Maybe he'll grow past this stage, or it maybe a side effect of his blue merle colouring. he doesn't have the brown/blue usual eyes, & the colour of the iris won't change now. Great hub !

Author

Akbok 6 years agofrom Aomori prefecture, Japan

Katharella: I'm honored to be visited by a commentator of such repute! And yes, I agree about dogs not getting full credit for how smart they are when it comes to dealing with us. I figured there must be a reason why humans are so inseparable from dogs, and decided to go into it. Then, lo and behold, turns out they did evolve to be 'smart' when it comes to relationships with us. Pretty neat when science backs the intelligence of your best bud :).

And wow lol, if only you had a picture of your dog in the middle of that back flip to make scarring her somewhat worth it. Cute story haha. Thanks for the comment, reading, and the compliment for Maggie!

Katharella 6 years agofrom Lost in America

Hi, I really love this hub! Wow, you put a lot into it! Dogs really are much smarter than people give them credit for (besides the elite few that know):)

I should do more on my dog but when she sees a camera she doesn't like it, I think even though she's 13 now she relates the camera to a flash because the day I got her I sat her down to take her picture and when the flash went off she did an entire back flip! lol I'm not kidding it was the cutest thing but I think it scared her.

But it is true they know us by learned reactions! Maggie is a sweetie, give her a doggie greeting from me and my pooch! :) v-up & awesome! -Kat

Author

Akbok 6 years agofrom Aomori prefecture, Japan

danielleantosz: Amazing beagle related imagery!

danielleantosz 6 years agofrom Florida

They really are, I m glad you agree! Mine has her cute little head sleeping on my pillow right now!

Author

Akbok 6 years agofrom Aomori prefecture, Japan

Daniellantosz: Beagles are one of the cutest darn dogs out there, so thanks for taking care of one and thanks for the nice comment!

danielleantosz 6 years agofrom Florida

Wow. Very useful and well researched hub. I have a little beagle and I appreciate the info!

Author

Akbok 6 years agofrom Aomori prefecture, Japan

Simone Smith: Really glad you enjoyed the Hub, and Maggie says thanks! Similar to you, I also saw a documentary type program on TV that acted as the incentive for doing some more research into the topic. It was on Japanese TV though, so it focused more on how cute the hostess of the show was than the actual dog related research.

RuthCurley: Yeah by all means go and try them on your dogs. I'm sure they'll pass with flying colors. If anything you can just drop a piece of salami on the floor, and then do the foot point technique. Maggie always picks up on that pretty quickly.

Memories1932: I'm glad we found each other too! lol. And I know what you're talking about in regards to your collie. The same little eye communication that my dog does made me want to know more about it. Hope my Hub brought you and your collie closer scientifically :)

Eiddwen: Thanks a bunch! I'm really glad you read this.

FeathersofArtemis: Yeah I thought the same thing regarding wolves too, until I read the research on them of course. Whatever you lose in companion points I'm sure you can make up for in coolness points though.

Miss Lil' Atlanta: Agreed, the notion that dogs are stupid has gone on long enough! My dog still gets fooled when I put a doggy treat underneath a towel though...

Ruthcurley 6 years agofrom Bozrah, CT

Yes, Miss. I know mine controls me with little effort at all. My grandmother's dog has taught her all kinds of new tricks!

Miss Lil' Atlanta 6 years agofrom Atlanta, GA

It's true, dogs are much smarter than what people give them credit for.

FeathersOfArtemis 6 years ago

I was all for getting a half dog half wolf before I learned about most of this. We would like to think that wolves are more in tune with something in us, but really they look more like a big pain in the you-know-what.

Have to say though, I may make exceptions for a fennec fox...

Don't know what it is? google it and prepare for cuteness overload.

Eiddwen 6 years agofrom Wales

This is a great hub and I am so glad that I came across it.

I now look forward to reading many more of your hubs.

Take care

Eiddwen.

Memories1932 6 years ago

What an excellent article. Maggie sure is a beautiful dog and you are both lucky to have each other.We have a border collie and he definitely uses his eyes to communicate.

Ruthcurley 6 years agofrom Bozrah, CT

I was facinated! I even read all the graphs and fine print. LOL. Now I have to go try these experiments on our dogs. My grandmother constantly talks about her dogs eyes and how intelligent they are. She does whatch her mistress constantly to see what she might be doing. I'm giong to print this out for her! Thanks again for another well written informative HUB.

Like the pugs eyes too!

Simone Haruko Smith 6 years agofrom San Francisco

Wow, these studies are fascinating! I had heard of some in a dog documentary I watched some months back, but wished I had a chance to look at the data in greater detail- hence I am quite pleased to have stumbled across your Hub! So cool. And Maggie is adorable!!